SCARCE NATURAL-RESOURCES AND LANGUAGE OF SECURITY

The subsuming of eminently soluble local conflicts on scarce natural r esources or environmental issues under the rubric of 'security' brings in a wrong orientation and wrong actors into the scene, and makes con flict-resolution more difficult and harmony less likely. The further c ategorisation of this as a question of 'regional security' is fraught with the danger of bringing such conflicts within the ambit of post-co ld war American concepts of 'regional trouble spots' and their possibl e bearing on the perceived American interests in the regions concerned . The academic community should be wary of being co-opted into providi ng a theoretical underpinning for this.